The Mothers of Invention, the infamous and repulsive rocking teen combo, is not doing concerts any more. Jimmy Carl Black (the Indian of the group) has formed another ensemble which he calls Geronimo Black (named after his youngest child). Don (Dom De Wild) Preston is collaborating with avant garde dancer Meredith Monk in performances of electronic music. Ian Robertson Underwood is preparing material for a solo album. Roy Estrada, Bunk Gardner, Buzz Gardner and Art Tripp are doing studio work in Hollywood. Motorhead (James Euclid) Sherwood is working on his bike and preparing for a featured role in a film with Captain Beefheart. Frank Zappa is producing various artists for his record companies, Bizarre and Straight (which he co-owns with Herb Cohen), working on film and television projects and is currently writing arrangements for a new album by French jazz violinist Jean Luc Ponty. This Ponty album, to be released on World Pacific, will mark the first attempt by any other artist to record a whole album's worth of Zappa's writing, exclusive of The Mothers of Invention interpretations.

It is possible that, at a later date, when audiences have properly assimilated the recorded work of the group, a reformation might take place. The following is a brief summary of The Mothers' first five years of musical experimentation and development.

In 1965 a group was formed called The Mothers. In 1966 they made a record which began a musical revolution. The Mothers invented Underground Music. They also invented the double fold rock album and the concept of making a rock album a total piece of music. The Mothers showed the way to dozens of other groups (including The Beatles and Stones) with their researches and experimentation in a wide range of musical styles and mediums.

The Mothers set new standards for performance. In terms of pure musicianship, theatrical presentation, formal concept and sheer absurdity, this one ugly band demonstrated to the music industry that it was indeed possible to make the performance of electric music a valid artistic expression.

In 1967 (April through August), The Garrick Theater on Bleecker Street in New York was devastated by cherry bombs, mouldering vegetables, whipped cream, stuffed giraffes and depraved plastic frogs… the whole range of expressive Americana… all of it neatly organized into what people today would probably call a "Love Rock Long-Hair Tribal Musical." The Mothers called it â€œPigs And Repugnant: Absolutely Free" (an off-Broadway musical)… it was in its third month when "Hair" first opened.

The Mothers was the first big electric band. They pioneered the use of amplified and/or electronically modified woodwind instruments… everything from piccolo to bassoon. They were the first to use the wah wah pedal on guitar as well as horns and electric keyboard instruments. They laid some of the theoretical groundwork which influenced the design of many commercially manufactured electro-musical devices.

The Mothers managed to perform in alien time signatures and bizarre harmonic climates with a subtle ease that led many to believe it was all happening in 4/4 with a teen-age back beat. Through their use of procedures normally associated with contemporary "serious music" (unusual percussion techniques, electronic music, the use of sound in blocks, strands, sheets and vapors), The Mothers were able to direct the attention of a large number of young people to the work of many contemporary composers.

In 1968, Ruben Sano lifted his immense white-gloved hand, made his fingers go "snat!" and instantly Neo-Greaser Rock was born. A single was released from Ruben's boss album (remember Cruising with Ruben & the Jets ?) called "Deseri." It was played on many AM stations (actually rising to #39 on the Top Forty at KIOA in Des Moines, Iowa) until programmers discovered Ruben & the Jets was really The Mothers under a disguise.

Meanwhile, the so called Underground FM stations could boast (because they were so cool and far out) that they actually went so far as to play The Mothers of Invention albums on their stations. Yes. Boldly they'd whip a few cuts from Freak Out on their listeners between the steady stream of important blues numbers.

And then of course, there was Uncle Meat, recorded back to back with Ruben & the Jets (a somewhat unusual production procedure). In spite of the musical merit of the album, the only thing that drew any attention was the fact that several words, in common usage, were included in candid dialogue sections.

Awaiting release is a collection of 12 complete albums of Mothers' music, a retrospective exhibition of the group's most interesting work, covering a span from two years prior to the actual formation of the ensemble, through August 1969. Included in the collection is documentary material from first rehearsals, tracing the development of the group through to its most recent live performances in the U.S. and Europe, some of which have become almost legendary. To those people who cared at all about The Mothers' musical explorations (and also those who didn't care & who wish to be merely entertained), this collection will prove of great interest.

Take three guys with a dozen songs or so of roughly three to four minutes apiece into a studio in Jersey with just a few instruments and not that many tracks to over-produce across for two weeks only and what do you get?

Well, in the case of Dipsomaniac Mick Chorbaâ€™s self-confessed â€œlo-fi side project with alt. counry overtonesâ€ The Successful Failures, you more than ably get to recreate that fleeting Golden Age of the Paley Brothers, Greg Kihn and Rubinoos anew, thatâ€™s what!

And guess what else? Well, one can hear precisely the kind of potent musical potient Ryan Adams, for one, is in most dire need of right about now (â€œSewer Waterâ€), one can savor again all the Farfisic paisley garage-pop of the classic circa-â€™86 Cheepskates (â€œWhat You Areâ€), one can imagine Poco hiring Pete Ham to write them a rightful middle-eight (â€œGod Knowsâ€) or The Replacements threw some brand new ProTools even (â€œIf Thatâ€™s The Way That You Want Itâ€).

But no, that still ainâ€™t all! Coz â€œHick Barsâ€ may as well be the worldâ€™s first-ever lovingly lowly mp3, â€œLetting The Terrorists Winâ€ once and hopefully for all relegates John Ashcroftâ€™s â€œLet The Eagle Soarâ€ to the Axis of Evil Besides, and even the Bonus â€œI Am A Rockâ€ Track is SO much more a pleasant Surprise than P. Simonâ€™s latest ever will be, believe you me.

So, as recent all-American events more than repeatedly demonstrate, only the most successful fail upwards, and this CD certainly isnâ€™t about to prove otherwise, God knows.

Lindsey Buckingham, multitude of custom guitars in hands, cannily fleeted from the humongous Mac only to craft one of the greatest folk albums in many an era, whilst that once-and-former misdiagnosed Voice of Someone’s Generation pulled out a clutch of ancient ribbon microphones and somehow produced the quintessential sonic answer to these crazed Modern Times we still try to live in.

Meanwhile of course, your ever-humble virtual listener cocked both ears deep beneath the socio-musical radar, only to hopefully bring to your attention again ten remarkable discs you should all hear too over the many many years to come. So Here They Are (in strictly alphabetical order, I’ll have you know):

1. DEPRESSION (11:11)2. OTHER END OF TOWN (5:18)3. EVERY MORNING (6:50)4. ALL OF A SUDDEN (6:56)5. LOCKED UP (4:23)6. PUT IT UP (5:58)7. MANGLED AND DEAD (6:00)8. SOME OTHER NAME (6:19)9. TELEPHONE BLUES (7:04)10. COTTAGE IN THE RAIN (6:25)11. SHEBA DOESN’T HAVE (8:39)12. SHADOW OF THE CLOUDS (12:41)

Proudly and loudly d.b.a. Black Flamingo, Flack Blamingo (!!), RewBee, RewWalsh and/or, on her latest digital five inches of self-styled “punktry” music called *that*S*rite*, just plain Rew, the jewel of NYC I know as Lisa Ludwig truly is the l-u-v child Ronnie Spector and Patti Smith SHOULD’VE had.

Chock straight full up of her very own grand brand of supremely potty-mouthed pop (i.e.: “U Suck” …”dirty” version especially) and powered by the ever-percussive spirit of no less than Our Friend Ficca (as in Billy, of Television, Waitresses, Dave Rave Conspiracy et al deserved fame) Rew sweetly took the time to answer, for us all, once and for all…..

1. Munsters or Addams Family: Which one’s for you, and why?

I secretly alwayz wanted to be Wednesday …the Addams were always so classy & BLACK…my favorite color…….but in real life herman munster lived on my street & i use to hang at their house…sometimez…my brother’s babysat for the kids..i wanted to but i was too young…the house was kind of creepy…but they were really kool & eccentric…they had pugs{dogs} everywhere…& NO rules …cobwebs everywhere…art everywhere…it was very surreal…we alwyaas thought it was a modern day muensters…cause it was in color!!!

2. Who in the world, living or dead, would you most like to play a game of Twister with?

john john kennedy

3. How many Sid King & The Five Strings records do you own?

ummmm….who?…but i do luv texas!!!…all my records got soaked up in a flood while i was out of town once a few years back…the albums actually saved my apartment by absorbing all the water…thank heaven for cardboard…

4. If you had been working the front gate at the Dakota that night back in 1980 when nasty Mark David Chapman showed up, pistol in hand, to avenge the chief Beatle for his "bigger than Jesus" wisecrack, what would you have done?

seduce him in any way possible…& then spin him around by his hair like a lasso until his eyes popped out of his head & then leave him until he could see again cause i think his vision was gone to begin with along w/ his mind so i guess he’d still be lying there…

5. "Gilligan" or "The Professor": Which one’s for you, and for How Long?

i do luv getting into trouble so i guess i have to pick gilligan cause he is alwayz getting into trouble & the professor would always be getting out of trouble…& who needs that? gilligan would probably get me so crazy too..& i luv crazy…just pissing me off & making me laugh… how long…well would we still be on the island??it is Gilligan’s Island so i’ll stay forever cause maybe he’s the King by now & that would make me the Queen…rite??? we’d be royalty…

6. What single song, living or dead, do you most wish you’d written… and why didn’t you?

it would have to be the R KELLY ‘Trapped in the Closet" opera…cause damn..that is the longest single i ever heard..& you can never ever believe all the twists & turns that go on & the brilliant writing…it’s pure crazy entertainment & pure genius….i didn’t write it cause as twisted as some may believe i am ,i am an innocent baby next to this man’s imagination…or experience…

7. Whose heart-shaped, purple guitar would you most like to be reincarnated as?

funny i have a heart shaped purple guitar…but i sure would LUV PRINCE having it & playing it…if it were me!..i know he’d treat me rite…

8. In 2000 words or less, your hopes, aspirations and goals, musical or otherwise, for your life and your country?

Wow…hopes..aspirations & goalz..that’s a lot to ask…I HAVE many of these for me & my country….i am basically an optimist or i say i live in total dillusion…i do believe that this world with all it’s ups & downs can be a place for everyone to live somewhat peacefully…all the cops & robbers & extremeists i believe should get their own planet & they can go off on each other all day & all nite non stop…& all the people in the middle should get their own planet & BE who they are w/out harming their fellow man…

I WOULD LUV my humble honest songz to get thru to masses of people & let them know that we all basically share a lot of the same feelings & desires & ups & downs & heartaches & dreams & surprizes & disappointments…

i for one am an avid believer in mistakes & wishes and dreamz coming true..i love fairy tales & i believe in happily ever after…i wish i could sometimes tell certain people how i feel …fortunately i write songz about it instead & at least i can purge my innerds outwardly thru this medium…i want to live in hotels & i want to tour & have some hit songz to support my life style…i have always been the type of person who literally loves BOTH sides of the track…i can hang out on either side …& enjoy both places…cause to me people are people…i work HARD & want to work hard & keep being disciplined & keep dreaming & succeeeding & i wish all this for everyone else too…i wish the person i think about too much thinks about me too…& i wish everyone gets to feel & LIVE life to the fullest…